OAKLAND — By her own admission, Ann Park was often that bashful kid in the corner of the classroom, the one who wouldn’t raise her hand and speak.

“Even in high school, I was very shy and did not speak up in discussion because I didn’t want to say the wrong answer,” said the Greenleaf Elementary teacher. “I always wanted to be sure it was 100 percent correct.”

But you’d probably never guess it now. In fact, she’s considered not only a leader among her peers but also a standout in the teaching field throughout the state. The writing and science teacher was recently honored as a 2016 California Teacher of the Year for her dedication, energy and innovation. The only honoree in the Bay Area, Park was among five statewide winners recognized by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

“Ann Park is one of the outstanding teachers in the state,” Torlakson said in a statement. “She is an innovative, caring, effective, dedicated teacher who takes so many extra steps to help her students succeed, including visiting students at home, helping parents, especially immigrants, become integrated into the school community.”

“I was very surprised, and it’s definitely a huge honor,” Park said about the award last week. “I didn’t think I’d ever get this far, especially because there are so many really amazing, smart, thoughtful and effective teachers that I’ve worked with in Oakland and around the state.”

To Park, 49, teaching is “an act of social justice.” And she has an enduring passion and commitment to working with economically disadvantaged students in East Oakland.

“I wouldn’t teach anywhere else but at a Title 1 school because I want to show people that these kids can do well,” she said. “They can achieve. They can have high-level discussions. From my experience, the kids can definitely handle whatever you give them; you just have to have high expectations for them so the kids will rise to them.”

So rather than spoon-feeding her kids scientific facts, figures and equations, she instead encourages her young students to engage in robust scientific debate, discussion and inquiry. She said she got her start in education, teaching for four years as a math specialist at a Berkeley-based math nonprofit, Project SEED, which was dedicated to teaching elementary school students higher-level math by engaging students with rousing questions and answer sessions that sharpen their critical thinking skills, techniques more traditionally associated with first-year law school than fifth grade.

Before coming to Greenleaf Elementary, where she’s been for less than a year, she taught a combined 20 years at economically disadvantaged Garfield Elementary and Bridges Academy at Melrose, both in Oakland. .

“She has unwavering belief in the potential of all of her students,” said the district’s talent development associate, Nyere da Silva, who nominated Park for the honor. “I’ve just watched her work these miracles.”

The effectiveness of her style of teaching was in full evidence on a recent Thursday afternoon. About 25 fifth-graders were sitting in a circle on a big rug depicting a map of the United States, happily engaged in intense debate and discussion — on the topic of evaporation, of all things. They’d each developed their own scientific theories to answer the question of whether water would evaporate the fastest in a container, a beaker, a dome lid, a flat lid or a graduated cylinder — and were supporting their theories in front of their peers.

Using terms like “I respectfully agree/disagree” to introduce their points, the students also used an array of fun and playful hand signals, similar to that of a referee, to agree, disagree, partially agree or question the speakers, sometimes pumping both fists in the air, other times waving both hands in front of their chest. Each in their own way, Park hopes, are learning how to be brave in her class — and learning to support their points with evidence.

“It’s better if they are ‘learning by discovery,’ because they’ll remember it better if they come up with the answer themselves,” she said.

And it’s making a difference for many of the young minds she seeks to inspire.

“I never had a teacher like her,” said Erendira Munguia, 10, a student in Park’s homeroom. “She actually grabs our attention and makes it fun.”

For example, Park spent extra time and effort to discover that a fifth-grade student, who was learning at the first-grade level, had a passion for reading nonfiction and drew him out in that way, da Silva said. Another time Park made a home visit to a shy girl who never spoke in class but ended up talking for three hours nonstop over her family’s kitchen table. She offers the visits to all of her homeroom students.

“Sometimes it’s just a 30-minute quick visit to meet their families, meet their dog, look at baby pictures, things like that,” she said.

It helps her connect with her students, which is the most important thing for teachers to do, she said.

“It’s really easy to say, ‘Yes, we want to improve test scores, students reading at this level’ and whatever, but our kids are not just data points,” she said. “We need to get to know our kids individually — and their families. They need to have this connection to school to feel motivated to learn.”

Age: 49 Hometown: OaklandClaim to fame: 2016 California Teacher of the YearQuote: “I wouldn’t teach anywhere else but at a Title 1 school because I want to show people that these kids can do well. They can achieve. They can have high-level discussions. From my experience, the kids can definitely handle whatever you give them; you just have to have high expectations for them, so the kids will rise to them.”